Manufacture of annealed steel wheels



(No Model.)

W G RICHARDS MANUFACTURE OF ANNEALED STEEL WHEELS.

Patented Oct. 20, 1891..

mm M mm 1. w h m 7 UNITED STATES WILLIAM G. RICHARDS, OF BOSTON,

MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR Tl) THE AMERICAN STEEL IVHEEL COMPANY OF NEIVJERSEY.

MANUFACTURE OF ANN EALED STEEL WHEELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 461,593, dated October20, 1891.

Serial No. 388,440. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. RICHARDS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Boston,in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture ofAnnealed Steel Wheels, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the manufacture by the method of casting ofsteel car-Wheels having central openings, the object being to furnish amethod of making an all-steel wheel having such an opening and annealedthroughout.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification,Figure 1 is a central vertical section of a car-Wheel mold havingtherein a double-plate car-Wheel, in the central opening of which thereis a core. This view illustrates the first step of the process. Fig. 2is a similar sectionalqriexw of the car-Wheel after its removal from themold, and illustrates the second step of the process.

Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures.

The mold shown in Fig. 1 is described and claimed in myapplication,Serial No. 358,657, filed July 14,1890. Other forms ofWheelmolds may, however, be employed for carrying into practice mypresent invention.

In the manufacture of all-steel car-wheels by the method of casting theprocess is first to cast the wheel and afterward anneal the same insuitable furnaces, the wheel being transferred while still red-hot fromthe mold to the annealing-pits. For making the central opening in theWheel the ordinary method is followed of inserting in the mold a core ofsuitable size and shape, around which the molten metal is poured; but,contrary to ordinary practice, the core for a steel wheel must be madeof the most refractory materials, which become hardened and cannot besafely removed by the ordinary method from the hot casting. 7 It isnecessary, however, in order to obtain effective annealing of the whileit is still highly heated and sensitive to heavy blows on the core,being a wheelshaped shell of hot metal filled with fluid metal.

According to my present improvement the Wheel B is cast around asuitable core 0, as indicated in Fig. 1. This core may be solid ortubular, as shown, and should, of course, be made of materials suitablefor withstanding the heat of the metal. When the casting has remained ashort time in the mold, it is removed therefrom, the core being still inplace. If the core be not a tubular one, the middle thereof should beremoved by suitable instruments, this part of the core being usuallyloosely formed and readily driven out by ordinary means. Next theWorkman places e circular chisel 8O centrally on the cor and bfa seriesof light blows thereon, i s edge 81 nearly filling the bore of thewheel, drives down the chisel and cuts the core material from thesurface of the wheelbore, as illustrated in Fig. 2. This leaves but aslight covering of core material adhering to the inner surface of theWall, not sufficient to materially interfere with the proper annealingof the metal of the hub. The core, being operated upon by an instrumentsubstantially asdescribed, is removed or cut from the surface of theopening by the application of a force longitudinally thereof andsimultaneously throughout the periphery of the opening, so that the thinsolidified shell or tube T, Fig. 2, then constituting the wall of thecentral opening, is not broken or distorted, although the core beremoved while the wheel is still fluid, as at 66, throughout theinterior of the hub thereof. After the core is removed as described, theWheel is placed in the annealing-pits to be annealed and remain untilsufficiently cooled for removal and use.

Having thus described my invention, I claim The improved method hereindescribed of making annealed-center all-steel car-Wheels,

central part of the Wheel, to remove the core which consists in castingthe wheel around a before the wheel goes to the annealing-pits,

core and allowing the casting to remain in nally thereof prior to theinternal solidificathe mold until solidified on the interior surtion ofthe casting. face thereof, removing the Wheel and core tot gether fromthe mold, and cutting the core \VILLIAM RICHARDS 5 from the heatedinterior surface of the wheel VVilnesses:

by force applied simultaneously throughout D. P. MIRRER, the peripheryof the opening and longitucli- V. E. MUMFORD.

